


Of Scales and Sending Stones

by Broken_Synchronicity



Series: omne trium perfectum [4]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragon Researcher!Keith, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, I swear to god I can write something other than college AUs, Keith gets psuedo-adopted by a dragon, Lance tries to be the voice of reason but fails, M/M, Potion Shop Owner!Lance, Pre-Established Relationship, Witch!Lance, how the FUcK do i tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-24
Updated: 2017-11-24
Packaged: 2019-02-06 05:07:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12810264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Broken_Synchronicity/pseuds/Broken_Synchronicity
Summary: A Star-Crossed Love story of a very strange variety.Or Lance is gonna need to learn how to remove scorch marks from the furniture.Prompt: Ripped up paper strewn across the floor, a potion, a lost itemBonusDialogue Prompt: "You adopted dragons?!"





	Of Scales and Sending Stones

**Author's Note:**

> Happy "Shove an entire Turkey up your ass" day to my fellow 'Muricans. 
> 
> If anyone knows where I got Lance's incantation in the beginning, good job, you've revealed how much of a nerd I am.

 

It's been a good day. It was a lovely sunny day out. The street market was lively in a peaceful way, people easily bustling about from shop to stall in the street market. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.

Lance had definitely been in a good mood. He'd had a good number of customers and made a good number of sales. Some people had even come in saying they'd been recommended by someone else who'd come in. He felt his little potion shop nestled between an Inn and an armory was finally getting some recognition.

" _Kristi vechuna es tilia_  
_Hon deli e kasum ciella_  
_Lihie hanx ne tellehe_  
_Ccuccu ni ha quatrolle he._ "  
  
With a quick flick of his wrist, he watched eagerly as the boiling pot of liquid turned from dark green to pale blue before his eyes as the enchantment took hold. Success! Another stock of Magic replenishing poitions is ready. However, just as he began pulling out empty bottles to store the potion in, he heard the bell over the front door ring.

"Bienvenido!" He called out, quickly enchanting a ladle and the bottles to fill on their own. He hurried out of the little back room to the shop front to see who'd come in.

"Lance, you here?"

"Hunk!" Lance rushed out from behind the counter to tackle his best friend into a hug. "Hey, bud! I haven't seen you in forever!"

"Lance, you saw me yesterday."

" _Forever!_ " Lance laughed loudly as Hunk chuckled in return. When Lance pulled back from the hug, he finally noticed that Hunk was carrying something. It looked to be a wicker basket.

"What's this...? Are you going on a picnic or something?" Hunk shruged and held up the basket a little.

"I mean, if having lunch with you in your shop is considered a picnic, the yes. And I brought the crystals you asked Shay for."

" _Bro...!_ " Lance whispered in awe, hands crossed over his chest in a touched manner. Lance all but dragged the larger boy further into the shop and cleared a table for them. The two began setting out the food when Hunk realized something.

"Where's Keith? He's usually here by now, right?"

"Yeah, but something came up at the castle." Lance explained as he went to get cutlery and plates. "He had to take a trip up north with Shiro and some others. Apparently, there's some rumors of poachers around Halagreo and they need Keith incase things get hairy."

" _Poachers??_ In a _tourist beachtown???_ Unless they're trying to poach sea serpents, I don't know what Draco poachers would be doing there." Hunk raised a brow, incredulous. Lance shrugged, just as baffled.

"Don't know. But Keith thinks it's got something to do with Beni disappearing a while back."

Beni, or formally _Benihime_ , was a fire dragon who had up and vanished about four and a half months back. She was the oldest Female dragon among the mounts for the kingdom's Dragon Riders. A huge, horned, brilliant red beast, who was something of a pack leader to the other mounts. She had had only a few Riders in her life, being a temperamental and stubborn thing. She mostly ignored everyone who either wasn't her chosen Rider, or Keith.

Which, according to Shiro, wasn't really _weird_ , per se, since Beni didn't currently have a Rider, it was the fact that Beni gave Keith attention when Keith wasn't a Rider-in-training, but nothing more that a Researcher. Dragons did pick and choose who they were comfortable with among the people who actually knew how to ride them, and rarely let anyone on them who didn't have any idea what they were doing, as they were trained to do.

But, Keith always had this unusual charm with the dragons. There had been one incident involving some tangled bridle gear that only stopped after Keith had done _something_ (Keith didn't even know exactly what he did) that had the two dragons calming down enough for him to get close enough to see where they were tangled. And this effect, whatever it was, worked on all dragons it seemed, including untamed ones.

From then on, Keith was often called to the castle to help in handling the dragons. Great for Keith's research, since he would have had to get permission from the King, the Stable Master, _and_ the Captain of the Dragon Riders just to be allowed near the stables. At some point, someone had dared Keith to try to talk to Beni, just to see if he could.

And so he did. And it worked.

And then Beni; prideful, Alpha female, _Crimson Princess Benihime_ \--

\--was found nuzzling Keith as if she'd known him all her life.

And then everyone lost their shit for a bit before Shiro stepped in to try and reign in the chaos.

It was established that _No_ , Beni didn't want Keith to be her rider, she wasn't stupid. However, it seemed that she had essentially adopted Keith. She would lick him in some attempt to groom him, brought him food and shiny things, and was generally affectionate to him. All the other mounts saw this and then Keith was essentially second in command after Beni. Or just the baby everyone loved and had a weakness to. No one could really tell.

(Having to be introduced as The Boyfriend to a _25 ft. Crimean Fire Dragon_ was _not_ what Lance had ever expected to be doing when he decided to start dating. He still doesn't know how he survived that encounter.)

It was nice. Keith had been more relaxed after Beni had started mothering him. Happier. Strange as it was, no one questioned it when it resulted in happy dragons and more research for Keith.

And then, one day, she just up and disappeared. Vanished into the night, because it's not like you could stop a dragon from doing whatever it wanted. But, no one could find her, no one even knew she had left until the early morning stable hands had come in to feed them.

Keith was horribly distraught. Lance was distraught over how distraught Keith was. It was _really_ bad, Lance went through several incense, a whole pot of chamomile tea, and even threw together a calming satchet just to get Keith to calm down enough to tell him what happened.

Lance sighed.

"I just hope this doesn't end in the worst case scenario."

\----

It's been a little over a week since Keith left for Halagreo. Lance is coping the best he can without the near constant company of his boyfriend. He has Hunk, Pidge, Matt, and Allura all to distract him, and he's not totally without access to Keith with their Sending Stones, but it's still hard. He can be a worrier at times, he knows.

But he can't help it when Keith sounds so _tired_ over their chats through the Stones. They hadn't really found much with the few leads they had and what little they had found didn't point to anything good. Keith was becoming more and more stressed as the days went on.

So, Lance did what he could. Distracted Keith for a short time so he could relax. Currently they were talking over their Sending Stones, Lance in bed at their shared home back in the Capital, and Keith in whatever Inn the Search Party had rented. He brought up random topics, trying to keep Keith's mind just far enough from work to ease him, like the current topic of their conversation.

"So, how's the beach treating you? Not too harshly I hope."

"Not any worse than our trips to Veradero, I assure you. Though we haven't exactly looked at the beach around here. Too busy following leads. At least the locals are trying to be helpful."

"Well that sucks. All work and no play make Keef a dull boy." Keith huffed a laugh at the tease. He sounded exhausted, and Lance felt the twinge of guilt in his chest at keeping him up, but it was Keith who started the conversation in the first place.

"Oh shut it. You'd probably like it here though. Town's kinda young apparently. Like 30-something years old? No real long standing traditions yet, but it's started to get its own style of things. It's quaint in a way similar to Veradero." It warms Lance that Keith so readily holds his hometown so close, as if it were Keith's hometown too.

"Yeah, I found a little tourist pamphlet about it a few days ago. Says there's a lot of cliffs around their beaches that have caves." Lance says, pulling out the pamphlet from under some books on the nightstand.

"Caves...?"

"Apparently some go pretty deep. No one knows how far, and no one really wants to according to the pamphlet. It says here that because water is in the cave, no one wants to accidentally hit upon a sea serpent nest."

"....."

"Keith? You there?" Lance quickly glances at the Stone around his neck at the sudden silence. It's still glowing so Keith didn't fall asleep on him or anything.

"Oh my god..." Keith mutters, as if realizing something. "I need to tell Shiro. Lance you beautiful, brilliant, boyfriend of mine, thank you for your God given curiousity streak." Lance stares at the Stone, brow raised in surprise.

"Whoa, ok, not that I'm brushing off such praise from you, but what did I say to get you so excited?"

"You've just given me our best lead yet."

"What?" Keith sounded so hopeful all of a sudden that it was giving Lance whiplash.

"Look, I'll talk to you again soon, but I need to pass this to Shiro. I love you so damn much right now, I'm gonna kiss the shit out of you when I get home."

"Well you'd better hurry it up then. Go bring your Dragon Mom back so we can get back to being sickeningly in love. Pidge hasn't met their quota of calling us disgustingly domestic this month yet."

Keith's laugh rang loudly and Lance couldn't help but chuckle along.

\----

Lance both is and isn't surprised by own clumsiness. He can be a bit scattered, but he always knows where everything is. And if he didn't, Keith usually would pick up on it and help. But, since Keith's been gone, Lance has only now realized how much he does depend on Keith to keep track of certain things he sometimes can't. Organization just sort of comes with the whole Researcher thing, since Keith needs to actively keep track of all his notes and sketches. Now, when it comes to the Store, Lance is a master at organization, but home? Yeah, he sometimes loses or forgets things every now and again.

Like right now. Lance can't believe he's forgotten to pack a lunch. He normally remembers, but Hunk's been keeping him company lately over lunch since Keith's been gone, so when Hunk says he has an unexpected emergency and can't make it, Lance groans at the realization.

And so, when Lunch rolls around, he closes up shop and heads back home. He doesn't keep anything that isn't potion ingredients aside from tea in the Shop, and that's definitely not gonna hold him over until closing.

When he reaches his and Keith's little cottage however, something is immediately off. For one, he knows he locked the door when he left, and now it's not. Alarms are immediately ringing in his head. Carefully, he slides the door open, doing his best not to make a sound.

Upon entering the living room, Lance freezes at the scene before him.

Some of the smaller bits of furniture are knocked over and a few books had been knocked off the book case in one corner and are those fucking _scratch marks?_ Shredded papers are strewn all across the floor. He can see some of it's the morning newspaper, others seem to be _Keith's sketch books oh shit_ -

A crash resounds from the kitchen followed by muffled swearing. Lance's attention snaps to the door to the kitchen, creeping over to it.

" _No, no, no, no- Shit, fucking- Come on, stop- Damnit, no-_ "

"Keith?"

There's another crash and a few more muffled curses and other sounds that Lance can't place. When did Keith get home? Was that _growling?_ Did something break into their home, and is it attacking Keith?

One more large crash has Lance bursting through the swinging door.

He finds Keith, indeed home, on the floor rubbing his head in pain. He looks disheveled, there are little tears in his clothes, and there's a set of scratches running along his cheek. There's a chair and some pots and pans knocked over and Lance is generally confused and kinda scared.

"Keith?! Keith, oh my god, what happened, are you ok?!" He rushes over to help Keith sit up, eyes wide with concern.

"Shit, this isn't how I wanted this to happen..." Keith mutters to himself.

"Keith, the house is a mess, and some of your sketch books are torn up, there are _scratch marks_ , and I didn't even know you were _home_ , and what the hell happened to you, you're _hurt_ and-"

There's the sound of claws on wood and they both turn to the side hallway leading to the laundry room. Lance's jaw drops.

There are dragons.

Two, little, purple-ish _Wyverns_ staring right back at him with their beady gold eyes. Their coloration is almost the same, but one only has a pair of forelegs while the other only has hind ones. The foreleg one has the beginnings of a crest where horns will grow, while the hind leg one has webbing??? And they're both the size of a medium dog, so they can't be anything more than babies.

"Lance-?"

" _You adopted dragons?!_ " Lance screeches, interrupting whatever Keith was going to say.

"Uh... No?" He doesn't sound sure.

Lance takes a deep breath and pinches the bridge of his nose. He just wanted lunch.

"Keith, why are there _baby Wyverns_ in our house?"

Keith sighs and scrubs his eyes. He turns and motions for the two Wyverns to come over where they were sitting on the floor. The two cautiously meander over and Keith pulls them under his arms. They squeak and struggle for a bit, but a hard look makes them stop. Once the two are settled, Keith begins his recounting of events.

The information on the cave systems had been the breakthrough the search party needed. The locals had, in a way, been right. It just wasn't a Sea _Serpent_ that was in the caves, but a Sea _Dragon_. And there's where things got all kinds of weird.

The thing is, dragons are long lived, far longer than most humans. Beni was up to nearly a century, but was still considered a young adult. Apparently, from what Keith had gathered, she'd been to the area of the town before it had been built. There, she'd most likely met the Sea Dragon. A very handsomely striking blue _male_ Sea Dragon. The two must have spent time together and bonded. However, since Beni and the Sea Dragon were neither of sexual maturity nor properly able to be together at the time, the two had gone their separate ways. The two must have wanted to be together, and Beni must have felt it was time to try. Breeding season had been in full swing when Beni vanished, but since the Riders hadn't planned on allowing any of the Dragons to do so, Beni simply left of her own accord.

"So that means these two are..." Lance began.

"Beni's. Yeah." Keith confirmed.

"That still doesn't explain why they're _here_ though. Why aren't they at the stables? And why didn't you tell me any of this sooner?"

"Because babies don't stay in the stables. Usually if the Riders decide to let some Dragons breed, they have a special temporary shelter made to house the breeding pair and infants. But since they hadn't planned on it, and Beni went off and did it anyway, there was no place to put them. Shiro volunteered me to take them since, you know, the whole 'Dragon Whisperer' thing and Beni adores me. She wouldn't let anyone else near them, so I couldn't back out." Keith sigh once more. "I couldn't tell you because one of them took my Sending Stone. They'd already hatched when we'd found Beni, and since they're half wild, they still have an un-tamed hoarding instinct. I hadn't even noticed until we were half way back and I needed to tell you the situation. And I still can't find the damn thing, so it's also possible one of the swallowed it."

"So, it's only until they get the shelter up? How long do we need to keep them?"

"A few days, a week at most. The shelter was made to be easy to put up and take down."

Lance stared blankly at Keith, processing all the information he had just been given. Keith was getting more and more nervous the longer Lance was silent. Keith was ready to break the silence and start apologizing, ready to take the Wyverns elsewhere if Lance didn't agree.

"Do you think it'd be a best seller if you turned this into a story of star-crossed lovers?"

"I- _What?_ " Keith sputtered.

"I mean, that's literally the whole premise of a shitty romance story like that. Two people, unable to be together for one reason or another, are forcefully separated for a time, only for one or both to run away in order to be together. Bada-bing bada-boom, happily ever after. Except Dragons." Lance elaborated. "The masses would eat that shit _up_."

Keith blinks. Then blinks again. The Wyverns make curious noises at him, confused by continuous starting and stopping of the conversation. Once Lance's words process, Keith can't stop from bursting into laughter. Because _fuck_ if Lance isn't right. It does sound like a shitty romance novel.

Lance laughs along. He feels lighter now. Keith is back, even if not in any expected way. When the two finally calm down, Lance finally remembers what the living room looked like.

"Keith, why is the house a mess? I know it's gotta be these two's fault, but they're really calm right now?" Lance asks.

"Yeah, they're calm _now_ , because they know they've done something really bad, but they're only maybe a few weeks old. Being separated from their parents, even for a short time, is really stressful. I only intended to let them tear up the newspaper and some of my empty sketch books, but, well, they got a little agitated and, as you can guess..." Keith gestured to his general self. Lance nods in understanding.

"Why are you home right now though? Shouldn't you be at the Shop?"

"... I might have forgot to make myself lunch." Lance smiles sheepishly as Keith gives him a fond roll of the eyes.

"Well, I'd love to take you to lunch, but I can't exactly leave these two alone. So..." Keith carefully moves the Wyverns off him in order to stand, holding out a hand for Lance. "How about I make you something, to start making up for having sprung all this on you."

Lance scoffs, but smiles and takes Keith's hand. "Yeah, I'd like that. Oh! By the way..."

Lance carefully hovers his hand over Keith's still injured cheek. He focuses, allowing his magic to gather in his palm, the pale green light soothing and healing the scratches. Once done, Lance gently places his hand on Keith's now healed skin, running his thumb over it to check his work. Keith closes his eyes and leans into the touch, sighing and relaxing more than he has since this all started.

"Hey." Keith opened his eyes to find Lance's so very close. "You still haven't kissed the shit out of me like you said you would."

Keith smirks and surges forward. He had promised after all.

The Wyverns continue to coo under them.

\----

" _Keith!!_ Keith, come get your child, _he's trying to set my rosemary on fire again!!!_ "

"Hotaru is yours too!!"

"He's yours when he's being a little _shit!_ How is he even old enough to be breathing fire in the first place?!"

"If that's the case, you come get yours! _You let Lluvia use the tub as a pool again!!_ "

"She hunts the fish in the pond otherwise! You know that!"

"Ow- _fucking hell!_ And Shiro said this would be good practice for when we decided to have kids! Human kids can't fucking _breathe fire_ or have _three inch talons!_ "

"If we ever have kids, we're finding the calmest, quietest orphan out of the bunch!"

"Agreed!"


End file.
